Heart of Gold
by blackdata
Summary: When the Johto region calls Astrid to her to make history, together with her best friend Luca, she fights through pokemon abusers, the uprising of a gang called Team Rocket, and solves the mystery of her own self-purpose and one of a strange young man called Lance. Rated T now, but later there is language, violence, and sexual themes. (HeartGold Playthrough)
1. Chapter 1

My favorite book was the one my old grandma Midori gave me when I was eleven. It was a book on legends, specifically pokemon legends, and had a leather-bound cover with _Mythical Pokemon in Johto_ written on the side. It contained testimonies and grainy photographs of legendary pokemon. I realized they were fake even at eleven, but Grandma insisted they were real. Her favorite story to tell was the reincarnation story of Ho-Oh, and that Ho-oh was so big it covered the sun as it flew by. I wished I wrote her stories down. She passed away when I was thirteen, and at eighteen I couldn't remember much of them.

"What's with that look?" Luca asked me.

He took the bucket of pokemon food from my hands and slung it over his shoulder. The inside of the pail clunked with dense food for ground types. I lost my breath as soon as I started lugging it. Luca, being an athlete, didn't mind the weight.

"I'm thinking about getting my own pokemon," I said.

He laughed his signature snort-laugh. "We already have about fifty at the lab. Do you think Professor Elm will let you take one?"

"He's seen me handle pokemon, and I'm sure he'll let me raise one on my own." I took a lighter bucket of food from the shed and we headed for the lab. The medium-sized, wooden building with a sloping roof sat under the hills in the distance. Beyond it, a few windmills' blades rotated in the wind. The windmills were our only tourist attraction in New Bark Town. "Besides, he even said I was his best volunteer," I said.

"Compared to me you are, and I'm your only competition." We pushed through the gate in the back to the feeding area. A couple sentret bounded at our ankles and cheeped. "Hey now, be patient!" Luca told them.

My chest tightened. "I want to leave home."

Luca stopped. I almost bumped into him. "Is this because of the gum incident?"

"No!" I said. I'd cut the gum out of my hair a long time ago and didn't want to talk about it. "I want to battle gym leaders this summer. It's not that I don't love volunteering here and getting pokemon poop all over me, I want to do something _else_. I want to travel, Luca."

My friend's face went from disbelief to horror in a slow three seconds. "You're serious about this, aren't you?" he said.

"Hey Astrid, Luca!" Professor Elm called from the back door. "We've got a new batch of pokemon to feed today. Take the food over here!"

I hauled my bucket ahead of Luca to avoid looking at him. Professor Elm had five little pokemon at his side, probably relocated from a pokemon shelter or caught from the wild. "Um, sorry for my forwardness," I said, "could I take one of these to train by myself?"

Professor Elm adjusted his glasses. "Sure, Astrid. Have you talked about it with your parents yet?"

"Wait a second-" Luca said.

I jabbed a finger at a green one with a leaf on its head. "Could I have that one? I'll take good care of it at my house."

Professor Elm's eyes shot to Luca's. My heart beat like a taiko drum in my chest. Elm slid his gaze back to me. "As long as you talk to your parents about it. Aren't you working on college applications?"

"Don't worry, I've done all that," I said, breathless. "I just want to see the world."

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ Hello everyone, this is my real playthrough of Pokemon HeartGold with an artistic twist. All pokemon caught here are my personal pokemon and all events have been based off the original storyline (with, of course, my headcanons!). This is the first chapter of the fruits of my labor. If you like it, please review or follow!


	2. Chapter 2

Professor Elm let me take the pokemon home. He called it a chikorita, a quadrupedal, grass-type pokemon with a large leaf on its head. I named him Ulric after one of my favorite characters in a book series.

Professor Elm walked me next door to talk with my parents about taking on the pokemon. Luca hovered behind me like a ghastly. He knew that I was planning something and wanted to pounce on me about it, but he wouldn't make a scene in front of my parents or Professor Elm. His stormy eyes burned the back of my shoulder-blades when we settled on my sofa. "Astrid, you've got that look on your face again," Dad said. "And you have backup. What's going on?"

Luca's knees bounced next to me on the couch. "Professor Elm let me have a pokemon," I said. I'd practiced this speech fifteen times in my head before planning my announcement. "I've been thinking for a while I wanted to do something over the summer before college. So, I've decided on taking the Pokemon League Challenge."

My parents fell silent, which I didn't expect. Whenever I tried something new they'd usually make a joke out of it. _So how's the unicycle going? You're not_ tired _of the idea yet? Haha!_ Instead, my dad rubbed his chin and my mom looked like she was calculating a hard math problem. "Is this why you wanted your pokegear fixed so badly?" Mom asked.

"I wanted to have something to communicate with you," I said. "Since I would be going out all summer."

This stuck my parents like a thorn in the rump. "You have a plan, right?" Dad said. "You have camping gear? Do you know how to make a fire?"

"Will you have enough money? You need to save for college," Mom said.

"You haven't shown interest in the Pokemon League before! You never even watched the show during battling season," Dad said.

"You're planning on _all_ summer to do this? What about volunteer work?" Mom said.

Professor Elm cut the onslaught with a few waves of his hands. "Mr. and Mrs. Natsume, I, like you, haven't had much time to think on this, but I have an idea to propose. I would like to send Astrid on an errand to Cherrygrove before she goes out. That way she can get used to traveling and have time to spend with her new pokemon."

"I'm going with her," Luca said.

"Luca, you have to work at the lab," I said, shocked. _What was the Professor going to do without extra hands?_

"I like the idea of Luca going with her," Mom said. "It'd be much safer for her to go with a friend."

"First, can we see this new pokemon?" Dad said. "Let me have a look at it."

My dad, a pokemon groomer, was always poised to judge the health and beauty of any pokemon that crossed his path. I swallowed and sent Ulric from his pokeball. He appeared in a flash of white. Dad squatted in front of him, gave him a once-over, and looked at Ulric's body-mass and height. Dad checked Ulric's eyes, under his leaf, his plant knobs around his throat, and petted him. "Fuzzy like a peach," Dad said. Ulric bleated and bounded to me. I lifted the chikorita onto my lap, pleased that Ulric was already comfortable with me. "I don't like grass-types though."

Mom chided him; Dad was always fond of rock-types. "What's this errand of yours?" Luca asked Professor Elm.

"I have an acquaintance nicknamed Mr. Pokemon," Elm said. I stroked Ulric's head and felt tiny hairs covering his skin. He _was_ like a peach. "He emailed me a couple days ago saying he found a pokemon egg. He raves about a lot of things, but he insists it's real this time and I should check it out for my research. He lives just outside Cherrygrove. I can give you his address and send you two over there to pick up the egg for me."

"Let's do it!" Luca said. Even though I was worried about both of us being gone from the lab, I was glad Luca was going with me. I knew he'd harangue me about my Pokemon League Challenge though.

Ulric looked up at me with amber-red eyes. "Be back in time for dinner," Mom said. It was such a mom-ish thing to say I almost laughed.

Luca stood up and motioned to the door. "Thanks Mom, Dad," I said.

Luca eyeballed me and I knew I wasn't going to buizel out of his grasp without an explanation. I knew that leaving would bother him, I knew that leaving would bother my _parents_ , but didn't know if I could face Luca. He and I were the twins born in different families. "Just come home safe," Mom said. "We want you off at a good start."

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ So, obviously, I chose chikorita. When I was a kid I loved cyndaquil and chikorita, and chikorita was my first starter in Johto so I chose it here.

I thought it might be interesting to include some parts of regular life to trainer's life, like applying for college, etc. If pokemon were real, I'd imagine some schooling issues to be like this.

I was partially inspired by "A Petty Nuzlocke Challenge" because the artist went through her entire game as she did it and wrote a comic along with it. That takes guts.


	3. Chapter 3

Luca and I set off with some water and snacks. Cherrygrove City was only an hour away by walking, and clumps of fir trees, tall grass, and blackberry bushes embraced the main road. Luca brought his marill, Buddy, along with us. I let Ulric walk at my side out of his pokeball. He extended his vines from the knobs at his neck and grabbed blackberries as we walked.

"So what made you want to do the Pokemon League Challenge?" Luca asked.

I had to be honest. Luca knew me well enough where he could tell when I tried to hide something. "This is going to sound stupid, but do you remember the book I had you read last year?"

"Which one? You tried to get me to read a lot of books."

"The one about the girl and he arcanine tracking down the killers of her parents."

Luca laughed. "What does that have to do with anything?"

My face heated. "The point of the book was the girl going out, traveling, and finding herself. I want to go out and have adventures in the same way."

"But the _Pokemon League?_ " Luca said. "There's eight gyms out there. I don't know if we could do that in one summer."

" _We?_ Who said you could come along?"

Luca crossed his arms. He was eight inches taller than me and built from sprinting in track. Luca was a fourth Japanese like me, and also shared the same birthday as I even though we were unrelated. He had black, short hair that was always unkempt from running. His eyes, grey like the color of rainclouds, looked people straight on with the unique confidence and charm only Luca seemed to possess. " _I_ decided I was coming along," he said. "Besides, Professor Elm has been complaining about not having enough field workers. While you're doing your Pokemon League stuff, I'll go do research for him."

"That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," I said. "Professor Elm is understaffed as is. He needs your help back there. What will your - your -"

Luca went stiff and I knew I tread on unsteady ground. "Dad will let me go out," he said, his voice brisk. "I'm eighteen. I can legally do whatever I want."

Buddy and Ulric chased each other in front of us. I looped an arm around Luca's in apology and he nugied my head. "Maybe it'd be better for you to come along with me," I said quietly.

"Yeah, we both have _oni_ in New Bark Town," Luca said.

* * *

We passed Cherrygrove, a quaint town with sakura trees, and headed to the suburbs outside of it. "The address should be around here," Luca said. "Oh, there's the number!"

We knocked on the door and a middle-aged man in a brown suit let us in. He introduced himself as Mr. Pokemon, served us tea, and guided us to the table. A white egg with blue and red shapes sat under a heating lamp by the tea kettle. I figured that must've been what we were here to pick up. "I've got another guest here," Mr. Pokemon said. "I hope you don't mind."

As he said this, an elderly man with graying hair appeared from the living room. "Oh, hello," he said. "You must be Professor Elm's students."

Luca and I recognized him simultaneously. Even without his lab coat, his Kanto accent and famous persona gave him away. "Oh, you're Professor Oak!" I said. I switched to my best honorific Japanese. "I'm honored to meet you."

Luca and I shook his hand and I told Ulric to heel. New pokemon at the lab knew basic commands, even if they didn't know a moveset yet. Luca did the same to Buddy. "We're not students yet," Luca said. "We're just volunteers, but yes, we do work for Professor Elm."

"You know, he was my own student back in the day," Professor Oak said. He sat down in the chair aside from us. I always thought the phrase was just a cliche, but Luca's eyes truly sparkled at the prestigious professor. "Your pokemon look very healthy. I'm glad he has his own lab running now."

Something clunked against the window, startling us. Buddy, the marill, pricked up his ears. "I hope it's not those darn youngsters," Mr. Pokemon said. "They like to run about these parts."

"Don't worry about them," Professor Oak said. "They do that in Kanto, too."

My pokegear rang and made me flinch. "Oh, I'm very sorry," I said. "Excuse me."

Embarrassed, I stepped out of the dining room and answered. Professor Elm's voice came at the end. "Hey Astrid." He sounded out of breath. "I need you and Luca to come back to the lab."

"Sure, why?" In the dining room, I heard Luca and the professor chatting. "We just got to Mr. Pokemon's house."

"I think it'd be best for you to get here in person. Something terrible has happened. Let Mr. Pokemon have the phone."

My stomach plummeted to my feet. Ulric, who'd been staying under the table, bleated at me as I came back. "Excuse me, Mr. Pokemon," I said. "Professor Elm wants to talk with you."

He took the phone, left, and I nudged Luca. "Professor Elm called and we need to go back to the lab," I said. To Professor Oak, I said, "I'm very sorry. I'd love to talk with you some more, but we have an urgent matter at home."

"What is it?" Luca asked as Professor Oak said, "Don't worry about it. I'm sure Professor Elm has his reasons."

Mr. Pokemon returned and put the egg in a padded bag for us. His motions were articulate and not wasted. He was like my mom when she came back from the pokemon shelter and a pokemon passed away. "You'd better go," Mr. Pokemon said and handed the bag to me. It had backpack straps, so I looped them around my shoulders backwards like a pouch for a kangaskhan baby. "I'm sorry you couldn't stay longer."

We said goodbyes, I hurried to put on my shoes, and we speed-walked down the path. The sun made a descent over the trees above us, the sky a pinkish red. "So did Professor say what hap-" Luca started.

"Hey!" a voice said.

We stopped, and a figure stood along the brambles. He emerged into the waning light, a shock of dark red hair on his head. "Hi," Luca said. "Can we help you?"

The boy's expression was not friendly. He wore a black high-collared jacked with red highlights, and his face was all angles; a sharp chin, pointed nose, and piercing amber eyes. Ulric made a low growling noise. "You can help me," he said. In a silver flash, he had a knife in his hand. "Give me that egg."

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ Let's be real, guys. People wouldn't just battle each other with pokemon, they'd carry knives with them as well.

Btw in my headcanon I imagined Johto and Kanto to be English and Japanese speaking and have both white and Japanese people in them. Johto moreso Japanese people since it seems to have a lot more traditional Japanese settings in the game. In this world, Japanese and English are used, but Japanese is more of the default language.

For some reference, Japanese has three levels of formality: casual, for speaking with friends and family, public, for speaking with classmates and strangers your own age, and honorific, for speaking with teachers, doctors, or pokemon professors, haha.

Also for reference, oni are Japanese demons.

Lastly, it's come to my attention about capitalization of "pokemon" and pokemon names. I know "Pokemon" is a trademark, but I figured I'd lowercase it in this world like you would with "animals," and pokemon names would be lower-cased too, like "tiger," but I'm not sure what's right here. Does anybody have any differing opinions on grammar?


	4. Chapter 4

_Author's Note: Warning, strong language._

* * *

I remembered the crime shows Luca made me watch with him. I remembered people getting mugged, bodies stuffed in trash cans with banana peels, broken beer bottles, suffocating black garbage bags, rotting ice cream. I remembered what my mom told me if something like this happened. _Do what the attacker says,_ she said. _If they want money, give it to them. Money can be replaced. Your life cannot._

"Back off," I said instead.

Luca swung his arm across me to protect me, or maybe to stop me from rushing forward. "We don't want to fight," Luca said. His voice was calm, despite his arm trembling in front of me. "We'll give you money; I have three thousand marks. That's enough to buy yourself a fancy dinner."

"Did you mishear me, fucker?" the boy said. "I want that egg. Hand it over."

The boy released a pokeball from his belt as a further threat. This pokemon was a fire type with a long snout and flames on its back. A cyndaquil. I'd trained one back at the lab just like it.

"I'm not giving up this egg," I said. Maybe it was some kind of maternal instinct within me, or maybe it was my body's revolt against being harassed, but a feeling like a typhoon welled within me. A raging storm of wind and rain. My chikorita barked. "Ulric, help me! Use tackle!"

I wasn't sure if Ulric was trained to know what 'tackle' meant, but he launched himself at the cyndaquil and slammed his body into it. The cyndaquil, startled, rebounded with a tackle of its own. Ulric rolled out of the blow, mostly unharmed. The red-haired boy hissed profanities. "Ulric, hit it again!" I said.

Ulric tackled it once more. The cyndaquil swiveled on its small legs out of the blow. The momentum sent Ulric tumbling forward, but he caught himself. The cyndaquil's strategy was familiar. I remembered teaching new pokemon at the lab similar fighting techniques, like how to use momentum against the opponent.

I stalled. "Why do you want this egg so bad?"

"What's it to you?" he said. "Give it to me or I'll crush your pokemon." The cyndaquil ran another tackle at Ulric. Ulric dodged, and the cyndaquil u-turned and came back at Ulric. It hit the chikorita this time and sent him rolling away with a panicked bleat. The tactic the cyndaquil used was _just_ like I'd taught back at the lab. The particular cyndaquil I trained was named Audric.

"Where'd you get your pokemon?" I asked.

"Astrid, stop egging him on!" Luca said.

To the cyndaquil, the boy commanded, "Finish that chikorita!"

"Audric, stop! Heel, now!" I said.

The cyndaquil halted. He looked at his trainer, then me, and shuffled to my feet. It sat and looked at me for further orders.

The red-haired boy blanched, jerked the cyndaquil's pokeball forward, and returned it. The cyndaquil disappeared in a flash of red. "Who are you?" I said.

Ulric extended a vine and slapped the knife out of the boy's hand. The boy squared his shoulders even though he was outnumbered. "Vincent," he said. "Not that it matters."

The boy burst into a sprint and vanished into the woods. I almost went after him, but it felt like all the energy had been sucked from my body. As if anticipating my unspoken desire, Luca grabbed my arm to stop me. I sank into him. Luca shifted his arm around my shoulders. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Ulric trotted over to me, a little bruised, and wove himself between my legs. The boy and his pokemon were gone, all that was left was a silver knife on the ground. I reached to my egg pouch and held it close to me. "We could've been mugged," I whispered.

Luca laughed. It was a harsh, short, laugh. "And you would've mugged that guy. You really scared me. Like, really scared me."

"I'm sorry."

Luca seemed to realize that my fight or flight response was over. Like he was protecting me from bullies, he reached over and petted my head. It was like we were little kids again, like some snotty child dumped sand in my shirt and Luca came to save me. Only it was different now. I'd never felt this kind of fear and anger before.

"He got that pokemon from the lab," I said.

"I know. C'mon, Professor Elm needs us back."

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ So, I wasn't sure what to call the currency in the game, so I just stuck with marks. Pokedollars sounded weird to me.

When I started this story, I didn't know what to name my rival, so I asked my brother if I could use his name. At the time my bro was restarting Pokemon Black 2 and needed a rival name for him, so I let him use the male version of my name. My brother is not a jerk like this in real life though, haha.


	5. Chapter 5

_Author's note: TW: bullying, alcoholism._

* * *

We returned to New Bark Town as fast as we could. The police were already there interviewing Professor Elm. Someone had stolen one of his pokemon.

"I think we know who did it," Luca said.

We gave the police our testimony of bumping into the red-haired boy outside of Cherrygrove City. He had allegedly broke down the back door of the lab and made off with Professor Elm's cyndaquil. Professor Elm couldn't function when we told him that we'd nearly had the pokemon egg stolen as well. He went into a flurry around the room and fixed already tidy stacks of paper and arranged already organized pens and pencils. It hit me that what had happened was serious. It felt like a storybook, like it happened to someone else instead of us.

After our interview, the police left and we gave the egg to Professor Elm. "You two are okay?" Professor Elm asked for the fiftieth time. "Shall I send an aide to walk you two home?"

"It's okay, we're fine," we kept telling him. Luca told him we handled the situation as best as we could. I wondered if he was trying to cover up that I almost went on a full-on assault on the Vincent guy.

Luca and I walked to our homes together, his just a house away, and we stopped at the fork in the road between them. "Astrid, do you still want to go on your pokemon journey?" Luca asked.

The way he asked that made me hesitate. "Of course I do," I said.

"You know, there's going to be more people out there," he said. Luca swept a hand through his black hair, his brow furrowed. The sun's descent made everything golden. In the suburbs, bug pokemon chirped. "Johto's a pretty safe place overall, but there's still criminals like that. I just..."

"I know, Luca." I punched his arm. "But don't you plan on coming with me? We'll be okay together. It'll be like a really long camping trip."

That cracked a smile onto his face. "You're right. Go tell your parents you're ready and I'll meet you outside your door at 10 o' clock sharp tomorrow."

We did our secret handshake, a fistbump, snap, clap, and then handshake with the opposite hands, and with that, we parted ways.

* * *

Luca didn't show up at 10.

My mom cried when I told her my final decision. She and Dad helped me pack all the things I might need. They got into an argument on the backpack being too heavy or light, compromised after pancakes and coffee, got into another fight about how many times I was going to call them, and then agreed on once a week. Then, they hugged me five times for each of them.

"You take good care of Ulric," Mom told me.

"I will," I said.

"You take good care of Astrid," Dad told Ulric.

The chikorita bleated in response.

I waited outside for Luca for fifteen minutes and tried to avoid my house's windows in case my parents might've been watching me go. I called him twice but gave up when he didn't answer. I headed to his house and knocked on his door. His dad opened it.

Luca's father was already drunk, or at least just started drinking. His white tanktop was soiled with sweat around the armpits and had pizza stains on the front. The odor of vodka permeated me. "Excuse me," I said. I felt like I'd swallowed gasoline. "Is Luca home?"

"No, he's not," Luca's father said, and shut the door.

I milled around another fifteen minutes before leaving for good.

I felt like puking, and I knew there was no use in trying to find Luca, so I started down the grassy path to Cherrygrove City. I called him three more times as I walked. He still didn't answer. I decided I'd wait in Cherrygrove Pokemon Center a little longer once I got there. Ulric trotted by my side and bleated a couple of different noises. "What is it, Ulric?" I asked.

He bleated again. "Are you worried about Luca and Buddy?"

The chikorita nodded, a strangely humanoid gesture. I dropped my voice to a whisper. "Me too."

Cherrygrove City opened up to me with the smell of cherry blossoms. At the back garden of the Pokemon Center I taught Ulric some basic commands, such as assuming defense and offensive position, using the move tackle and growl, and some dodging techniques. Ulric was a fast learner, but he bored easily. It was probably because he was a young pokemon. I had a worse time teaching some pidgey back at the lab, who tended to scratch when annoyed.

 _Smack!_ Something black zipped out the back of the Pokemon Center and into the training area. It had bowled Ulric over and the chikorita scrambled to all fours. "Ulric, you okay?" I asked. The back doors of the Pokemon Center slid open and a couple girls ran out. I recognized them. "It's old four-eyes!" one said.

I stiffened at the jeer. It was childish, but it was set up for something worse. The three girls circled me, Namie, Minori, and Emily, students that attended the same school as me for twelve years. "Nice pokemon," Minori said. "Where'd you get it, the trash?"

Ulric bristled and barked. "It's funny seeing you here," Namie said. "I thought you'd be stuck in New Bark Town. Not, you know, go out or something."

"Ulric, come here," I said under my breath. Ulric bounded to me and I scooped him into my arms. As I did in years before, I retreated into silence, a hard shell covering me so I could escape. Emily was smoking a cigarette, which I was sure was the reason they had to come outside.

"You see a little dog pokemon?" Emily blew smoke in my face. "It ran right out here. I think it's a stray."

"She can't see anything even with her glasses," Minori said.

I tried to walk away but Namie kicked my ankles. I jerked my head down so I couldn't see them. I willed the rage and indignation to rise in me like it had with Vincent, but it didn't. It was shoved into the core of me and sealed. "Where are you going?" Namie asked. "You have a date?"

I saw a pair of eyes under the bushes far away. "She can't get a date," Minori said. "Not with that hair."

"Or that face." Emily jabbed her burning cigarette into my arm. I squeaked and jumped, which made the girls laugh. Ulric growled. It was as if he was saying, _Let me attack them, Astrid!_

"Leave me alone," I said.

I shouldn't have said anything; I should've known from trying to backtalk them from years earlier. One of the girls cackled like a murkrow and shoved me. She hit me so hard I landed on my back in the dirt. Ulric wrestled his way out of my arms and barked, his vines extended. "Oh, your little pokemon is going to stick up for you now," Namie said.

A low growl grated from the bushes and startled the girls. Winded from the fall, I sat up to see a black, canine-like pokemon emerge from the branches of the plant. It was as black as coal, fur filled with burs and twigs, and had a bone armor over its head, back, and ankles. The bone on its head was cracked. It let out a sharp bark and flames flecked at its jaws.

"Knock it off!" a voice said.

I whipped my head around to see Luca standing meters away from us, his face so cold it could've frozen the vicinity. My heart jumped into my throat. Emily threw her cigarette at the ground and crushed it with her foot. "We were just talking," Minori said. "You know, catching up and stuff."

"I don't want any trouble," Luca said. His voice was so low and husky it scared even me. "You'd better leave."

"This is a public space," Minori said. "We can stay here as long as we want."

"Tell that to the police when I report you," Luca said. "Or, you know, I could get security from the Pokemon Center. Take your pick."

The girls weighed their options. Since they were adults now, they would have much worse consequences than they did when we were teenagers. Luca took a threatening step forward. "Alright, alright!" Namie raised her hands in defense. "We'll leave, big guy. No problems here. Take your nerdy friend and go."

The girls backed into the Pokemon Center like a pack of growlithe with their tails between their legs. After a moment of watching to make sure they were gone, Luca ran to my side and helped me up. "You okay, Astrid?" he asked.

"What are you doing here?" I said, breathless.

Luca checked me over and winced at the burn on my arm. I tucked it to my side, ashamed. "I crawled out the tree by my window," he said. "Dad wouldn't let me go, so I went anyway. I figured you'd wait for me here."

"Thank you for coming," I whispered.

Ulric bleated at the dark pokemon that had crawled out of the bush. The pokemon made whimpery growling noises back. Ulric looked back at me, burbled, and motioned with his vine to come closer. The dark pokemon locked eyes with me after and shivered.

I lowered myself to a crouch so I wouldn't scare it and approached. Luca stood back and watched. "Hey little one, thanks for standing up to those bullies," I said.

"Did you find it?" Luca asked. "It looks malnourished. Maybe we should take it inside."

Ulric waved his vines at the Pokemon Center. "Come on, puppy," I told the pokemon. "I won't hurt you. Let's get you fixed up."

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ My brother traded me that houndour. :) He and I used to go in the battle tower in my heart gold and his pokemon platinum. I'd totally wreck with him in our ORAS games but he still hasn't beaten it. :/


	6. Chapter 6

_Author's Note: tw abuse and bullying mention_

* * *

Luca and I took the pokemon inside, where the nurses took it in. They told us she was a female houndour and found her in a closet in one of the Pokemon Center's overnight rooms. They hadn't a clue she had been locked in there since they didn't hear any noises. However, the houndour was emaciated and probably had been abused longer than the one day it was in there. "I don't think she has a trainer," one of the nurses said. "We can keep her for a little while, but eventually we have to let her go."

"I'll take her," I said.

When the houndour returned from her checkup, she accepted my request to join my team. I gave her the name "Cupid" for love, bought pokeballs at the Pokemart just for her, and allowed her to choose her favorite one. She yipped and vanished into her chosen pokeball in a flash of red.

Luca and I stayed the night at the Pokemon Center. "I talked with Professor Elm before I left," Luca said and threw down his sleeping bag. Pokemon Centers had private rooms to pay for but also had a free community room for trainers to sleep on the floor together. They also had washers, dryers, and wall-sockets for charging electronics. Both of us didn't want to waste any money since we hadn't battled any trainers yet. "He gave me the OK to go out and do field research. He even gave me a camera!"

Luca showed off his shiny new Nikon camera and camera bag. It even had a variety of lenses to change out and a tripod. "He wanted me to record the growth of your pokemon," Luca said. I dumped my sleeping bag next to his. "They're going to grow a lot on this journey, you know."

"Don't get any pictures of me."

"I'll try not to. But I need a model for size comparison." He winked.

I let Ulric and Cupid from their pokeballs to sleep with me. I crawled into my sleeping bag, Ulric settled by my head, and Cupid dove into the sleeping bag with me. As a fire pokemon, her body heat felt like I lied next to a warm fire. "Did your dad reject you when you asked to go?" I asked.

Luca got into his sleeping bag. Buddy, for some reason, liked it when Luca used him as a pillow, so Luca rested his head on the marill's squishy belly. "Instantaneously," he said. "I hardly got the words out before he said no. Then he went on a ramble how I was being 'ungrateful' for him 'housing me' and 'feeding me' and that he knew that he was the 'real reason' I wanted to leave."

Luca told this in a joking manner, but he didn't look at me as he spoke. I reached out and touched his arm. He took that moment to take hold of my wrist, turn my arm, and expose my cigarette burn. He'd put a bandaid over it for me. "I thought you said those girls weren't going to bother you anymore," he said.

"I thought they were. I wasn't expecting to see them after graduation. You're changing the subject, too, Luca."

"My dad didn't do anything to me, if that's what you're asking." His grey eyes softened. "Once I get into college I'll be fine."

"You keep saying that."

"You're one to talk." He grunted and curled into his cocoon of a sleeping bag. "You always said 'once I graduate from high school, it'll be fine.'"

"I suppose we both keep saying what we wish for. Neither of us know if it'll happen though."

"Once we get going on this journey we won't have to deal with anybody. I know that for a fact."

"Sure." I smiled even though I knew that probably wasn't true. "The nearest gym is in Violet City. Let's go tomorrow."

"It's a deal."

We did our secret handshake across the space between us and fell asleep in Cherrygrove City.

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ I thought it would be realistic to have layers in the world of pokemon, just like how every society has it's darker side. In Japan, they have lots of "ijime" (bullying) and power abuse (like parents abusing their children.) I think it's important to touch on these things.


	7. Chapter 7

Luca and I headed toward Violet City the next day. The travel uphill was tedious and gave me as much of a workout as my pokemon. Like most roads between smaller cities, they didn't exist in a neat pattern. The road we took curved around fir and evergreens, tall grass, and a craggy mountain overhead. Luca took pictures as we went. He even filmed some training sessions I did with my pokemon when we took breaks.

Violet City appeared to us in a sweet-smelling haze. "You know, my parents almost enrolled me in the trainer's school here," I said.

"You? A trainer? I can't see that ever happening." Luca, of course, was sarcastic. He snapped a shot of a house we passed by. They had a dark purple, sloping roof and wooden screen doors. Ledyba hummed in the trees above us.

"Yeah, I was one chance away from becoming an elite student of pokemon," I said. "New Bark Town needed a pokemon groomer, so that's why Dad moved here."

"I thought it was because your mom wanted you to become a historian."

"That too." She'd heard that pokemon schools didn't focus on other subjects as much. As we passed by the academy, I had a lingering twinge of thought: _Are my pokemon good enough for the gym?_ I may have had lab experience and more pokemon knowledge than other people my age, but people that came out of pokemon schools applied to be gym leaders and even went on league challenges like me. They _were_ elite.

It couldn't hurt to train more. We'd battled a couple trainers on the road, and while Ulric excelled, Cupid was a little shaky, but young town kids weren't gym trainers. Cupid needed to work on her fire-breathing some more, since she relied on her physical attacks too much. From studying houndour, they were special attackers, not physical ones, and it'd be best to start early with special attacks.

"You see that tower over there?" Luca said.

I followed his pointed finger. A massive, three-tiered tower loomed in the distance. It sat on a small island in the pond across the town. Pidgey sat on the gutters and flapped away when the tower tilted. "It's Sprout Tower," I said. "We watched a documentary on it in the fifth grade."

"I remember. Something about having _juukouzou_ to protect it from earthquakes, like a swaying bellsprout. I was going to say we can train there. The monks let you battle them and give you sage advice."

"That's perfect!" I told Ulric and Cupid to heel and they rushed to my side. "Are you two ready to battle?"

Ulric bleated, and Cupid barked. I took that as a yes, and Luca and I headed to Sprout Tower.

The inside was built with rope and flexible wood to help the tower balance. It was unnerving at first to feel the creaks and bumps, but soon, Luca and I adjusted. All the monks wore robes, had shiny bald heads, and sent out bellsprout to fight. The typing helped the timid Cupid get an upper hand, while challenged Ulric to fighting harder. "How much father up is the top?" Luca asked a monk.

"Here, there, the same thing," she told him with a smile.

"Must be some Buddhist saying," Luca said to me.

We climbed the stairs but halted as aloud _bang!_ at the top startled us.

A familiar, red-haired boy stood at the top floor with the head monk. He'd returned his pokemon, but the aftermath of the battle remained. The monk's bellsprout lay knocked out on the wooden floor with white sap oozing from its stem. "You won, but you battle too harshly," the monk said. "You treat your pokemon like they are weapons."

Vincent grunted in reply and turned. When he saw us, a wry grin broke out on his face. "Well, look who it is," he said.

The rage that had been encased inside of me when the girls bullied me unleashed. It was like a volcano. White hot magma spewed from my core. "You little twit!" I spat. "Hand over the pokemon you stole!"

"Astrid." Luca's hand found my arm. Vincent rolled his sleeves up and palmed one of his pokeballs. The monk noticed this and stepped forward.

"I won't have meaningless violence in this tower," he said. His voice was soft, but it was so strong it jarred me through my spine. "You, boy, you must leave. You have finished the challenge."

Vincent was stunned only for a moment. "Whatever," he said. He pushed past us with the stride of a persian, and his shoulder bumped mine. I could've hissed. Luca kept his hand firm on my arm and didn't let go until Vincent was all the way downstairs.

"You say he stole a pokemon?" the monk said.

I nodded. Luca let out his held breath. "I will have someone alert the authorities," the monk said. "Afterwards, didn't you come for a test? It will be a pleasure to serve you."

* * *

 _Author's Note_ : Let's have some worldbuilding here. :)


	8. Chapter 8

I beat the head monk easily with Cupid. Luca struggled with Buddy, and after he lost he shrugged it off and told me he wasn't really a "trainer type." I told him he had a type disadvantage and he couldn't help that, but he wasn't too bothered by the loss. "What did the monk mean when he told you that you needed to learn more?" Luca said.

"Probably for battling," I said. "In general, I need to learn more, but I'm still weak at battling."

"I thought you had a great handle on your pokemon," Luca said.

I thought I did too, for starting out at least, but I might have been getting a big head. I hadn't lost once since I started the journey. The sage's advice was probably needed and I'd take it seriously. "Do you think I'll be ready for Violet Gym?" I asked.

"Of course. Since you don't have any gym badges, Falkner will adjust for your level. I'm sure you'll be fine."

We decided to take a rest at the Pokemon Center before going to the gym.

Falkner's gym was enormous and had a platform on the first floor that zoomed us up to the top. There, the ceiling was a glass dome and gave the illusion we stood outside, suspended into the air. Falkner was a man in his late twenties with dark hair and a kimono with feathery embroidery on it. "Greetings," he said. I eyed the white lines on the gym floor, now very aware that I was in a gym. "I am Falkner, the flying-type gym leader. A pleasure to meet you."

Luca and I introduced ourselves. Falkner asked me how many badges I had, I told him none so far, and he congratulated me on starting my journey. He gave me a run-down on the rules. "This will be a two-on-two battle," he said. "I'm pleased to see you already have two pokemon. If you don't have any questions, let us begin."

Falkner launched his pokeball and a pidgey burst from the capsule. Ulric leaped forward before I could say anything. I was about to chide him, but my mouth turned numb. _Focus,_ I thought. Luca patted my back for support. _I can't panic on my first gym battle._

"Ulric, poisonpowder!" I said. My voice came out weak, but Ulric heard me. He swung his leaf around and purple dust scattered into the air and swamped the pidgey. The pidgey fluffed up and tried to shake it off.

"Use sand attack, Orville," Falkner said.

I cursed myself for not realizing what the piles of sand around the gym were for. The bird pokemon flapped into the air and kicked a cloud of sand into the arena. Ulric cringed and squinted. He wasn't hurt, but I realized what Falkner was doing. He was trying to reduce visibility. "Tackle!" I said.

Ulric lunged, but the pidgey maneuvered around it and flapped more sand into the air. Ulric's form went blurry. He bleated a panic cry to me. My heart froze. "Ulric, assume a defensive stance!" I said. In the midst of sand, Ulric's vines crossed into an X in front of him. Above the cloud of dust, the pidgey looked woozy. The poison must have taken effect. "Tackle it!" Falkner said.

The pidgey plunged at him. Ulric batted it away but the force still knocked him off balance. "Tackle!" I said. The pidgey was turning, and it was right open. Ulric steadied and dove at his foe.

He missed.

The sand was blinding him! Ulric hit air and scrambled for footing. The pidgey took advantage of this and bashed into him. Ulric hit the floor and bleated, his soft body bruised. "Ulric!" I didn't think of a command. Panic crushed my chest. "Are you okay?"

The pidgey wobbled to the floor as Ulric got to his feet. The pidgey's breathing was labored and its feathers were skewed. The poison worked. "Ulric, one more tackle!" I said. "Focus! You've got this!"

Ulric had heard where the pidgey landed and charged. He hit it head on and sent it flying. The foe flopped across the ground, rolled, and fell still. It took me a long moment to realize Ulric knocked it out.

"You did it!" I blurted.

Falkner returned his pokemon and Ulric rushed into my arms. I spun Ulric and felt like I was flying. Ulric bleated, like he was saying, _I did beat it, didn't I?_

"Astrid, one more to go!" Luca whooped behind me. I felt like I'd drank three energy drinks. "You can do it!"

"Cupid, can you handle the next one?"

Cupid gave me a brisk nod and headed into the arena. The dust settled by now. Cupid's haunches were stiff, and my elated feeling felt scraped out with sandpaper. _Cupid's nervous. More nervous than usual._ "Don't worry, Cupid, I'm right behind you!" I said.

Falkner sent out his last pokemon. It exploded out of the ball in white light into the sky. It was a bird with red head feathers, a pidgeotto, well-groomed and healthy. Having experience raising one at the lab, I was impressed by the care Falkner gave it. "Wilbur, tackle!" Falkner said.

I ordered Cupid to dodge but she went ramrod straight and took the entire blow. It knocked her sprawling across the gym floor. "Cupid, stand!" I said, terrified. "Are you okay?"

Cupid got to her feet. Her legs shook and her fur stood at end. _Did she have stage-fright?_ "Cupid, it's okay," I said. "I'm not going anywhere. Do you want to try an ember?"

Her ears flashed backward, signifying she heard me, but her posture didn't change. The pidgeotto readied another tackle. I wasn't sure if she could take it. Ulric tensed in my arms and bleated a warning. Then, Cupid squared her shoulders.

She opened her jaws, let loose a fireball, and with that, it was over.

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ I figured training pokemon was a lot like training dogs, in a way. To have them learn certain commands and call them to do it. Falkner here uses a different approach, since his pokemon know him well enough to do things without him guiding him.

I did a bit of a mix between anime and games here, in the way of using terrain around them to help with battles, and the turn taking like in the games. My real-life battle was very similar to this in terms of moves the pokemon used.


	9. Chapter 9

I took my pokemon back to the Pokemon Center with a shiny new badge in hand. "I knew you could do it," Luca said and clapped me on the back.

"It wasn't just me," I said. "My pokemon took all the pounding."

When I checked Cupid and Ulric in, we sat in the waiting room and chatted. Usually all Pokemon Center's looked the same in layout and most furniture, only magazines or toys for kids changed. "How much money did you get?" Luca said.

"Enough to get us supplies to the next town," I said. "I think they'll be trainers on the road to battle, so we won't go broke."

"I can't battle, so you're going to be our prime source of cash," Luca said. "I still have some from home, but it won't last all summer."

"You can battle," I told him. "Are you still bitter about losing?"

"Of course not. I just know my limits." He leaned back in his chair and put his arms behind his head. "You're doing really well. It takes some people months to get a badge."

"It's not that impressive. I grew up with pokemon and have experience from the lab."

My pokegear rang. I apologized to Luca and answered it. Professor Elm's voice came on the other end. "Hi Astrid, how are you two doing?" he said. "I have a present for you both. I sent my assistant to the Violet City Pokemart to deliver it for you, I hope you haven't passed it!"

"Wow, thanks! We're still in Violet City. We'll head over now."

I hung up and relayed the information to Luca, and after my pokemon returned from their checkup, we bounded to the Pokemart. The aide was Takashi, one of the assistants that had been with Professor Elm for ages. He milled about looking at the X Speeds on the shelf. "Mr. Takashi," I said.

I startled him and he turned around. There was an egg pouch strapped to his chest. "Long time no see," he said. "I'm glad you two are doing good."

"Professor Elm said you had a present for us," Luca said.

"I do." He said this as a customer entered the Pokemart. She caught my eye with her flashy kimono, but Takashi unstrapped the egg from himself and handed it to us, distracting me. A shiver of surprise ran through me when I held it. "Professor Elm thought you should take care of the egg," Takashi said. "He said it'll only hatch when around other pokemon, and he couldn't think of anybody better than you two to take care of it."

"Really? I'm going to be a daddy!" Luca said.

I snorted. The newcomer to the store moved closer to us. I saw now she was in entirely performance attire like in a geisha; white face, sparkling red kimono, and crisp, perfect black hair pinned back. She smiled with small red lips. "Excuse me," she said with articulate formality, "is that the egg Professor Elm owned?"

"Yes," Takashi said. "He entrusted it with his two aides here. They're on a pokemon journey."

The kimono girl lifted her head to me. She was shorter than me by two inches, and I was already short, five feet and two inches, though with the intense gaze her eyes gave me, she could have been looking at me straight on. "You'll be good to raise that pokemon," she said. She looked back at Takashi. "Thank you for your time. I only wished to inquire about the egg. I hope our paths cross again."

With that, she turned and walked out of the Pokemart. I strapped the egg to my chest and felt a maternal surge of feeling go through me. The egg felt familiar and nice.

"I guess I'll be a mommy, too," I said.

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ I'm not good with kids. I never was. I just don't know how to talk to them, like, do you just nod and pretend to know what they're babbling about? How do you hold them? Why do they cry so much? idk.


	10. Chapter 10

Azalea Town was our next stop. It was farther away than our trek from Cherrygrove to Violet, so we packed extra things. Luca and I split Falkner's prize money. I bought practical things, like tampons, sunscreen, and some canned food. Luca came back with a giant bag of trail mix and a pocketknife.

"Quit judging me," he said.

The scenery grew mountainous as we left Violet City, and rough redwood trees surged up from the earth around us. The grass was so thick around our feet it felt like we trudged through water. Ulric, Buddy, and Cupid cavorted through the weeds. I was worried they'd get lost but Luca told me they could hear us better than we could hear them. "Look at that!" Luca said. He pointed to a sign that read RUINS OF ALPH.

"We have to see it!" I clutched Luca's arm. "I read about this in history class!"

Luca groaned. "I didn't mean take a detour; we haven't got all year. Can't we visit it when we go back?"

"It'll just be an hour, I promise."

I dragged him through the gatepost to the ruins. They opened up in a craggy, sun-baked rock formation with a small hut to the side that said RESEARCH CENTER on the wall. The place looked touristy, and even had a gift shop, but no one was around. We let ourselves into the research center. An excited scientist, or rather, bored-of-nobody-visiting scientist, swept us away. "Are you here for the free tour?" he asked.

"Yes," I said. He took us through the ruins.

"These ruins were once ancient structures built 1,500 years ago, but we don't know by whom," he said and gestured to the square clay buildings. They were built with four walls, like someone's home. "It's very recent compared to most anthropological findings, but we haven't found a single record of this place. There are no stories, no folktales, no evidence at all what this place was built for. At the research center we spend hours dating rocks and artifacts, and we think it might have been some kind of sacred chamber."

"For what?" I said. Luca looked bored.

"For pokemon, we think," he said. "There are letters on the walls we think are the key to understanding it. Next, we will look inside one of the structures. As you can see here, they're in the shape of boxes, so we know these are human-made. If you want, we have a puzzle in the first chamber you can solve."

"I would love to!" I said. Luca's eyes probed the back of my head. I didn't understand how he could be bored already; it hadn't even been ten minutes yet. "Why don't you pull out your camera?" I said to him. It was a true attempt to involve him in this experience. This was something many people would never get to do. "Can we take photos here?"

"Only in the first chamber," the scientist said. He led us in a square entrance to one of the ruins. "Watch your step, please don't touch the walls, and I'll give you some gloves to handle the puzzle. They might be small since the puzzle is mainly used to entertain little kids."

The walls were made of grey stone and had black etchings of what looked like the Latin alphabet. The letters looked like they had eyes. Luca retrieved his camera and took pictures without the flash. In the middle of the room sat what looked like an altar, which consisted of two pillars on the side and one wide one in back with a concave middle. The scientist gave me a pair of plastic gloves.

"Go ahead and solve it," the scientist said. I walked into the pseudo-altar. There was a large broken tablet inside. The puzzle was filled out for the most part, and it looked like a kabuto, a fossilized pokemon. I took the pieces of the tablet and placed them inside the altar. "In order to keep educating youth like you, our team collects donations from those who visit us," the scientist said. "If you'd like to donate after the tour-"

I placed the last slab inside. Before I heard the rest of what the scientist said, the entire picture flashed blue, an enormous rumble rattled the room, and the ground disappeared from beneath my feet.

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ So it's taken me like ten years to realize "Alph" in "The Ruins of Alph" is short for Alphabet.

Sorry for the late post! I've been busy trying to work my part time job schedule in and get a conversation partner before I go abroad. (I'm going to Japan for my junior year of college.) As you can see, I've completed that. :)


	11. Chapter 11

I screamed as I fell.

I didn't fall for a long time. A second later I hit stone with a _smack!_ and Ulric and Cupid crashed beside me. It felt like all my bones crushed together. I tried to breathe, but my lungs wouldn't expand. "Astrid!" Luca's shouted from above. "Astrid!"

My ribcage blazed in protest, but I sucked in air. Ulric bleated, panicked, beside me, but Cupid was silent. I had a horrific feeling she was dead. I reached for her, even though it felt like my arm had shattered into splinters, and she gave it a hot lick back. I shuddered in relief.

I heard the scientist above, "Hold still! We're going to get you!"

Even though I knew my body had experienced a terrible blow, I was glad I didn't smash the egg. Luca had taken it from me before we entered the Ruins so it was safe in his arms. I tried to move. My muscles ached, but lifted. The shaft of light from above cut into a square over me and blinded me to look up. I focused on the darkness around me and tried to make out my pokemon's forms.

Something darted in front of my face.

I shrieked and my voice echoed through the tunnel. It looked like a physical form of the letters on the walls. It stayed in front of me for a single second before disappearing. "Astrid! Astrid!" Luca's voice said.

I struggled to sit up. As I did so, a pair of arms swept under my legs and back and picked me up. Luca. He squashed me to his chest and in the darkness, I saw the scientists handle my pokemon. "You can return them," I said. My voiced croaked like a totodile. "My pokeballs..."

"It's gonna be okay," Luca said. I thought he said this more for himself than me. "It's gonna be okay."

* * *

Super short sweet chapter, I'm sorry. I've had like no time today.


	12. Chapter 12

I'd fallen into the tombs below. The scientists took me back to the research center, where I puffed on my inhaler and waited for the pain to go away. I hadn't broken anything but dark, hideous bruises flared out over my hipbone, shoulder, and arm. Ulric showed his blemishes more than Cupid. His looked like a yellow wilted spot on a plant.

 _It looks so ugly,_ he bleated.

"We are sincerely sorry," the tour guide said. "That has never happened before. We promise that we'll give you some compensation money for your injuries. Again, we are so sorry."

I wanted to refuse but Luca took their money without any politeness and marched us off. We spent the night outside for the first time since we left. I skipped my pokemon's nightly drills because they were so banged up. "Are you sure you're okay?" Luca said for the fiftieth time.

"I'm fine," I replied. He rustled into his sleeping bag and I stared at the stars. Even though I'd landed on my side, my whole body ached. I also had to move Cupid from her spot on my chest because her tears literally burned me. They were like hot tea water. "Luca," I said, "you don't have to be worried. Something like this was bound to happen."

"I know, but it doesn't make it any less scary. When we're back at home the worst thing that happens is a pokemon bites you."

"Are you thinking about going home?" I said.

I turned my head to him and saw him with his arms behind his head, looking at the stars. They were a little light polluted since we were nearby Violet City, but they were much more visible than inside the city. Luca's face was relaxed and pale in the moonlight. He had short, soft black eyelashes.

"I don't want to go home," he said. His eyes flickered to me. They were almost silver in the night. "I'd rather be out here than back home. Do you think I overreacted?"

"Is that what you're worried about?" I laughed. "I think you reacted fine. If my spine was broken, though, I wouldn't recommend picking me up."

"I think the media romanticizes pokemon trainers a lot," Luca said. He closed his eyes. "We're basically out here without a home facing the elements and they play us off as heroes and adventurers. I wouldn't be surprised if trainers died."

"You're so pessimistic," I said. "We have nothing to worry about."

"Ah." His breathing slowed.

I could never understand how Luca could fall asleep so fast. I tucked my arm under my head and closed my eyes. Would we get into more trouble out here? Probably.

I could handle it.

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ Sorry for the wait. It's been a holiday week, yo.

Anyway, so I have this conversation partner I practice Japanese with. We were talking about Pokemon one time, and when we video-chatted, he was like, "Do you remember when I told you my favorite pokemon was raichu, ne?" and I was like, "yeah" and HE PULLS OUT A RAICHU PLUSHIE THIS GUY IS A 24 YEAR OLD MATH TEACHER I COULD NOT BELIEVE THIS WAS REAL


	13. Chapter 13

The next day my bones ached. My bruises hadn't gotten any better, and Ulric and Cupid seemed stiff. Still, we did some morning training. Cupid's fire-breathing improved enough where she could let out a steady stream for a couple seconds at a time.

"It looks like you're understanding them more," Luca said. He'd been filming us to track our growth. According to him, we'd progressed rapidly.

"It's been getting easier," I said.

I didn't want to sound strange, so I didn't tell him my pokemon's noises had begun to sound like English to me. It might've been from hitting my head on the ground and is just a side effect from a serious brain injury, or I could truly be understanding how to communicate with my pokemon. I preferred the latter. Understanding my pokemon made training a lot better.

 _What's that?_ Ulric bleated. He pointed to the sky with his vine.

A big railway cast a shadow overhead. It looked like it was suspended in the air. The thick trees covered the poles lifting it above us. "That must be the railway," I said.

"The one that goes from Goldenrod to Saffron City?" Luca said.

As if on cue, the train shot past us. Aside from the metal whistling in the wind, it was almost soundless. "The really expensive one," I said.

"What's that?" Luca said.

He pointed to the tops of the trees. In the next moment, the train disappeared from view. I squinted. There was a small, white flag near the top of one of the trees.

"I'm gonna get it," Luca said.

"Don't be ridiculous." But Luca was already scaling the tree. He grabbed the next big branch he saw and pulled himself up a couple more feet. He gave me a goofy grin as I scowled at him. He was just doing this to make me angry.

"Luca wait! Don't get yourself hurt –"

"I'm fine!" He laughed at me when I tried to reach the limb he'd used to start off. I was too short to grab it. "I can see it from where I'm at. It's a box tied to a branch."

"If he falls," I said under my breath to Ulric, "try to grab him."

But Luca returned safely with the box under his arm. A plastic bag covered the outside, coated with splatters of bird pokemon poop and leaves. The tie, a piece of twisted wire, was rusted. Luca ripped open the plastic bag. "Wait a second!" I said. "That's not ours!"

"It's not anyone else's either." He pried open the lid to the tin box.

Buddy twitched his nose. Inside the box was a pokeball and notepad. Luca handed me the tin to hold and flipped open the notepad to the first page. "Congratulations," he read. "For finding this geocache. What's a geocache?"

I took the notepad from him and saw a number of names signed on the first page. I felt a thrill. "This is exciting!" I said. "Geocaching is like a worldwide scavenger hunt. You use latitude and longitude lines to–"

"Okay okay, the point being?" Luca said.

I huffed. "The point being you look for a cache, find it, take the goody inside and replace it with something of yours."

"What's the goody in this one?" Luca said.

"Probably this pokeball," I said. I signed Luca's and my name under the list of finders and dated it. It had been a very long time since someone had last found it. "Trainers often like geocaching, so spare pokeballs are a good gift."

I put in a couple potions to replace the pokeball. Luca closed the tin, retied the bag around it, and when I eyeballed him he resigned himself and put the bag underneath the roots of the tree instead of in it again. Ulric sniffed the air. _There's something in it,_ he bleated.

I frowned. "What's wrong?" Luca said.

"I…" I rolled the pokeball in my hand. It felt… heavy. A pokeball's weight didn't change whether a pokemon was in it or not, but for some reason, a strange, ominous pressure weighed in my palm. If a pokemon were really inside, that would mean its previous trainer had left it here. Abandoned it until someone found it again.

 _Release it,_ Ulric said, his voice dark.

I pressed the button on the capsule. To my horror, it exploded with light and a pokemon materialized before me. It was a pokemon I'd never seen before. It was a purple balloon with a yellow X taped under its eyes. Two strings dangled from its body, and a white, wispy cloud hovered on the top of its head. "What in the world…" Luca said.

It stared at me with dark, soulful eyes. "H-hello," I said. "Who-who are you?"

It made a noise like a piece of plastic being shook.

 _Faye._

I was transfixed. Luca broke the silence. "We need to call Professor Elm," he said. "This isn't our pokemon, and I'm sure he'll know what we should do with it."

I nodded. The balloon pokemon extended a string toward me and took my hand with a feathery tuft. The pokemon's tuft was almost hand-like, and felt tingly, like it held a strange power within.

 _My name is Ulric!_ Ulric blurted. _And this is Cupid!_

Faye looked at them to acknowledge them. "You're right, Luca," I said. "Give me a second to pull out my pokegear."


	14. Chapter 14

We called Professor Elm. During the wait, Cupid stuck, glued to my side, terrified of the balloon pokemon, and Ulric attempted to talk to Faye. Faye wouldn't answer Ulric, though. He soon gave up and pouted.

"Thanks for calling me," Elm said when he finally picked up. "It looks like you've got yourselves a drifloon. They only live in Sinnoh. Maybe a traveling trainer left it in that geocache of yours."

"What should we do?" I said. "We're not this pokemon's trainer. It's been so long I don't think we can count on that trainer being in Johto anymore."

"I believe the only thing you can do now is take it to a pokemon center and have them take care of it."

"Do you think they can contact its old trainer?"

Professor Elm paused. "Astrid, I think you're under a little misunderstanding. That trainer didn't leave the drifloon here by accident. They did it on purpose."

My stomach rattled like it was in an earthquake. "What do you mean? That the trainer just – just _abandoned_ it?"

"Yes, that's what I'm saying." Professor Elm's voice was tinny over the device. "But the trainer probably didn't see it that way. They probably thought of it as a trade of some sort. Or possibly they didn't want the drifloon anymore and wanted to give it to a better trainer."

"This pokemon has been in this tin for almost a _year_ ," I said, outraged.

Luca took my pokegear from me, despite it being on speaker and didn't matter who was holding it or not. "So we have to take care of it now?"

"You can send it back to me by using the nearest pokemon center," Professor Elm said. "Or yes, you can take care of it yourselves. Drifloon aren't supposed to be aggressive, but they can be mischievous sometimes."

"I'll take care of it," I said.

"Don't be so quick to make a decision, Astrid," Professor Elm said. "A new pokemon is good for your team, but I also neglected to teach you about care for ghost pokemon. They can be quite… _unorthodox._ As well, there might've been another reason why that trainer abandoned that drifloon."

His unsaid words hung in the air. _The pokemon could be violent._

I looked at Faye. She stared at the grassy field around her. If she was listening or understanding, she made no indication of it.

"Let's think on it first and decided when we make it to Goldenrod," Luca said.

"Okay," I said. It made my blood boil to think that she was stuck in a pokeball for so long, though. It didn't matter how Professor Elm justified that trainer, no pokemon should have to be alone for that long waiting for someone to find her.

"By the way," Elm said, "I never asked you about the egg. How is it doing?"

"It's doing fine. It feels heavier." After some final small talk some egg advice, we hung up. I opened the egg pouch to see how the egg was doing. It was warm and cozy. "It's looking good," Luca said. "I think it might hatch soon."

Faye reached out with her hand tuft and placed it on the egg. Cupid burst to her feet and snarled. Faye shot her string away. "Whoa there, stand down!" I said to Cupid.

Cupid continued to growl, but sat on her haunches. Panic gripped at my chest. Cupid had never acted like this before.

"Maybe it's better to keep the drifloon in its pokeball," Luca said, soft.

I swallowed and retrieved Faye's pokeball. "Sorry," I said, and returned her inside.

* * *

 _Author's note:_ I'm going to _attempt_ regular updating. Weekends are best for me, but then again, my study abroad experience is almost over so I need to have some fun.


	15. Chapter 15

Cupid didn't say a word about the incident afterwards. We moved on and reached a Pokemon Center by Union Cave and let our pokemon rest. Beforehand, we were harassed by a man who wanted to sell us slowpoke tails. Whether they were real or not, we didn't know, but the nurses shooed him away before he could bother us any longer.

"Do you want to leave Faye here?" Luca said. I'd already told him I was going to call the drifloon Faye. "I know it's not Goldenrod, but if you've decided to leave Faye with Professor Elm…"

I took off my glasses and rubbed them on my shirt. I didn't want to look at Luca. "I feel responsible for her."

"I know you do. But remember, we're not trained to handle ghost types. Professor Elm would be better to take care of her."

I sighed. "Luca, I need some more time."

"Cupid doesn't seem to like her," Luca said. He flipped through his camera's pictures. His voice was low, and hinted at his worry. "I don't want to compromise anybody's safety."

I put my glasses on. Luca looked like a storm cloud.

"When we get to Goldenrod I'll make a decision," I said.

"I can wait." He smiled. "Look at this picture."

He showed me the camera and a blurry picture of my bare foot illuminated on the screen. "When did you take that?" I snorted.

"I don't remember. It must've been an accident."

"Delete it!"

"No! I'm kind of attached to it."

"Ew, keep your foot fetish to yourself, then."

Luca laughed. Then, the reception desk resounded a _ding!_ Our pokemon were done with their check-up.

* * *

 _Authors note:_ F-f-foreshadowing!


	16. Chapter 16

_TW: death_

* * *

It took us another day to get to Union Cave, the next obstacle in our course. I didn't let Faye out of her pokeball unless to feed her or let her stretch. Cupid had an uncharacteristic animosity towards her. Ulric was fine, though he was miffed because Faye wouldn't talk to him. _I'm super interesting,_ he said. _I don't know why she won't talk to me._

Union Cave was large and formidable, but well-travelled. Lots of trainers passed through the area, so it had a clear path and lanterns that illuminated the way. The inside glowed aquamarine and streams burbled in the distance. We trekked for a half an hour before Cupid stopped in front of me.

She growled.

"What's wrong?" I said.

Luca glanced at me. Cupid's growl faded into a whimper. _I smell something bad._

I picked her up and she buried her snout into my collarbone. "What are you smelling?"

Luca petted her head and between the bones on her back, which she usually liked. Cupid didn't relax. _It's the smell when I hunt prey, but not for hunting. When the red comes out._

"Is Cupid okay?" Luca said.

"There's something ahead that's scaring her," I said. Cupid's fur bristled. An ice cube formed in my stomach. "I think we should check it out."

"That's how people in horror movies get killed," Luca said.

"But if we don't, we won't know what it is." I marched forward. Maybe it was maternal instinct that drove me; Cupid was my child and I didn't want anything to scare my baby. Cupid gripped my shoulders with her paws. Then we rounded a corner.

The stench hit me first. It was the smell of a hunting ground, battlefield, butcher shop, something dead.

"Luca, don't get any closer!" I said, my voice raspy.

"What are you –"

He stopped at my side and stared. The smell of rotting blood inflamed my nostrils, and bile roiled in my stomach. It was a dead slowpoke in a puddle of its own blood. Its tail had been severed and taken.

Luca puked. His marill wailed. I couldn't look at the slowpoke; I just rubbed Luca's shoulders until he finished puking. A wildfire of indignation overwhelmed me and my breath hissed through my teeth. "It lost too much blood and died," I said.

Luca returned Buddy. I couldn't imagine how traumatizing it would be to see a fellow water pokemon dead. I returned my pokemon as well. "We need to give it a proper burial," Luca said.

I nodded. "Let's take it outside."

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ Shorter chapters are easier for me to upload. Sorry y'all.


	17. Chapter 17

_Author's note: Tw: (animal) pokemon cruelty_

* * *

Cupid followed the old man's scent. With her nose to the ground, she led us to a stone well with a gaping mouth as wide as my arm-span. The dull sound of rushing water floated up to us. "Do you think he went down there?" I said.

"There's a ladder," Luca said. "He might've climbed down."

"I'm going in." I swung my leg over the side.

"Wait." Luca snagged my arm. "Before you do this, think for a moment. Now that we know where he went it's better for us to call the police and wait for them to come."

"And what of the old man?" I said. "He could be in danger _now_." I paused and narrowed my eyes at him. Luca didn't say anything about disapproving of my actions. "Are you not going to stop me?" I said.

Luca bit his lip. "I knew you would go after him. And I don't want you to go alone."

He and I clambered down the ladder and found the old man, Kurt, at the bottom of the well. He groaned and rubbed his back. I ran to his side. "Are you okay, sir?" I asked.

"I fell hard on my back," he said. "I scared the hooligan up at the top and he shot down here like a furret. But I tripped on the ladder rung and fell. If I were in better shape I'd go after him."

"Who was he?" I said. "Did he have something to do with the slowpoke?"

The old man looked at me, his eyes tired. "Do you know Team Rocket? They're down here. You two trainers?"

We nodded yes. "Go get them for me," Kurt said. "I'll be fine here."

Luca, me, and our pokemon plunged into the cavern.

"He said Team Rocket, right?" Luca said. We splashed through puddles. Despite the well exterior, inside was a cave with streams and rivulets of water. Some of the pools went higher than our knees. "I thought the Kanto champions took them out three years ago. Do you really think they're back?"

"They could be imposters." Cupid squealed when she stepped in water. I didn't want to think what would happen if Kurt was right and they _were_ back.

Inside the well were human-made plateaus to walk on. We climbed up the stairs to one. A flash of black crossed my vision. "You there!" Luca said. "Stop!"

He skidded to a stop. He wore all black with a blazing red R on his shirt, picturesque of the Team Rocket members I'd seen on the news. Evil people with battered pokemon. Grunts that guarded the sieged Silph Corporation. Criminals that stole pokemon. "Commander Proton!" he yelled. "Intruders!"

"Ulric, grab his leg!" To my command, the chikorita lashed out a vine and snagged the man as he took off. He fell like a sack of potatoes. He grasped for a pokeball at his belt but Ulric slapped it away. Ulric might've been as mad as me. "Are you taking slowpoke?" My words came out like fire. "Answer me!"

"Astrid," Luca said, surprised.

The man's face turned white. Cupid, shivering between my legs, growled at him. "I – I can't disobey Commander Proton," he said. "You want to see him, go down into the well. Don't hurt me!"

I imaged punching him, hard enough where his teeth flew out. Luca put a hand on my arm. His skin was cool, a contrast to my blazing hot body. "It's not worth it," he said under his breath.

I jerked my head to the side. "Ulric, release him."

Ulric let go. The man scrambled to his feet, and with a panicked howl, he ran further into the cave. Ulric tilted his head at me and frowned. He wanted the man to be punished like I did.

We hurried after the man. Weeping slowpoke appeared in pink dots as we climbed. A lot of them were dead. At the end of the cave, a gaping, blue tinted crevice in the wall, the grunts appeared. They held a net full of slowpoke at one end, and a chopping block at the other. One grunt held a slowpoke down while the other readied a butcher knife. "Stop!" I screamed.

She brought it down. The slowpoke tail sliced off and fell to the stone floor. At first, the slowpoke did nothing, but then, the pain registered, and it wailed.

A wordless scream tore from my throat. Luca gripped my arm. "So here are the intruders," a cool voice said.

We whirled around. There was a tall man standing before us with dyed blue hair underneath a black hat, which he pulled the brim back from his eyes. His uniform was different than the grunts, still all black, but with white tall boots and white gloves that went to his elbows. His smile was cruel. He might've been handsome, if not for the cold, sharp look to his eyes.

"My name is Proton," he said. "And yes, we're in charge of the slowpoke kidnappings. I'll have you know their tails sell for a big price on the market."

My body quaked with so much rage it went numb. I couldn't speak. Luca said, somehow calm, "We're here to peacefully ask you to stop. Please leave this place."

"Oh, such _heroism,_ " Proton said with a sneer. "Too bad us baddies won't listen to peaceful protests. We're just going to cut your pokemon up and sell their organs. Maybe yours too, but that's not my style."

That was when I realized I was going up against someone far more powerful than I thought.

I stepped forward. "Ulric," I said quietly.

"Astrid, stop," Luca said.

"You're going to fight?" Proton tilted his head back and leered. "Good. I like toying with my prey first."

A zubat came screeching out of his pokeball. Ulric batted it away with his vine before it could dive at my hair. "Ulric, use razor leaf!" I said.

The zubat was too fast for Ulric to prepare but he still managed to swat the zubat away with his leaf. The zubat came back biting. Without me having to call, Ulric assumed a defensive position and slapped away the zubat's attacks. "I like feisty girls," Proton said.

"You misogynistic pig!" I said. "Ulric, finish it!"

Ulric slammed the zubat away with his vine and swung his leaf. A hundred tiny leaves shot from under it and struck the zubat. The enemy pokemon fell to the stone floor and didn't move. Proton returned it, only seeming amused. "What a useless creature," he said. "How about my next one?"

He sent out a koffing, a bulbous purple pokemon with black smoke drifting out of its pores. "Koffing, kill it," Proton said.

The koffing surged toward Ulric. Ulric moved to dodge it, but he was too slow. The poison pokemon slammed into him and Ulric careened backward with a cry. "Hit it with your –" I said, but the koffing attacked him again. Ulric batted it away with his vine. The noxious fumes wafted my way and made my head feel like mush.

The koffing tackled Ulric again. Ulric's peachy body freckled with bruises. The koffing was merciless, hitting Ulric over and over. I couldn't call commands fast enough. "Ulric!" Luca yelled. "Ulric, hit it to the ground!"

Ulric heard him. In any other situation, having another trainer call commands for your pokemon was cheating, but I was grateful for Luca's outburst. The chikorita leaped just as the koffing zoomed in for a tackle, and Ulric landed on the poison pokemon. He used his body weight to punt the koffing to the stone floor and its round body squashed like a beach ball. As Ulric bounded away, the koffing bounced two times away from us. It didn't move.

Proton returned it. I keened in on the vein bulging at his forehead, and his cruel smile was fixed. "So I'm out of pokemon," he said. "But this setback means nothing to the thousands of us. I hope to see you again, little girl."

He reached for his belt, which I thought was another pokeball, but he threw a smokeball to the ground and it exploded. Luca grabbed onto my arm and coughed. "Don't lose me!" he said.

Once the smoke cleared, the Rockets were gone. I coughed up the remaining smog from my lungs. "Astrid, are you okay?" Luca said.

"I'm fine." Ulric bounded to me and wrapped me in a hug with his vines. _That was scary!_ _We need to get out of here._

Ulric was right. Luca ran to the slowpoke in the net and released them. "Go! You're free now!" he said. The slowpoke took a moment to process the information, and then they lumbered out. I ran to the pokemon on the chopping block. It whined a low, pain-filled cry. I gathered it in my arms and ignored the blood dribbling on me from its tail. "Hey, you two!"

It was old man Kurt. He held his back, wincing, but he was up and moving. "I saw those fools run out," he said. "You've done good. Let's get out of here."


	18. Chapter 18

We came back to the Pokemon Center with the rescued slowpoke and contacted the police. Kurt had more information on the Rockets than we did since he'd been researching them longer, but our lived experience was also helpful. "You two were real heroes out there," Kurt said. "If you need any help on the road, just drop by my place."

I wasn't emotionally able to leave the slowpoke until I knew it had recovered. Luca and I sat in the Pokemon Center, where we'd both gotten off a traumatic conversation with my parents. They berated me the whole time. Mom, however, told me when my father wasn't listening, that she was proud of me.

"Do you want a hug?" Luca said.

"No," I said. I felt like I would cry if I hugged him.

"I need one. Are you up for it?"

I scooted toward him on the Pokemon Center's plush couch and wrapped my arms around him. Buddy and my pokemon cuddled near us. Luca's wrought-iron muscles relaxed against me, and he pulled me close. "I've never seen you like that before," he said. "It was like when we saw that red-headed kid."

"What do you mean?" I said.

"You were fearless. You were like a superhero. And you were completely enraged at the Rockets. I've just never… you've never stood…"

I sighed. "I've never stood up for myself before, that's it?"

Luca squeezed me, ashamed at his words. "I didn't mean it like that."

"It's true though." I let my body unwind, joint my joint, against Luca's chest. My insides swirled around like jelly. I felt like an smashed apricorn; my hard exterior shell cracked and the soft interior exposed. "Whenever those bullies would come at me I took it without a word. You were always my superhero and swooped in to save me."

"I don't mean that you becoming your own hero is bad," Luca said. "I'm just… startled. I guess I didn't want you to put yourself in danger."

"Don't worry about that, I won't get hurt. I suppose it wasn't me I was protecting. I was protecting the pokemon."

The PA announced that the slowpoke had finished recovering. Luca, me, and our pokemon untangled and we went to receive it. The slowpoke sat on the counter with bleary eyes, a bandage covering the stump of its tail. "He's not yours, is he?" the nurse said.

"No, he's a wild pokemon," I said.

She winced. "I hope you can find a home for him. Slowpoke depend on their tails for catching food in the wild, and he doesn't have one anymore. It'll grow back, but we can't take care of wild pokemon here for that long."

I reached out and petted the slowpoke's smooth head. His skin was thick and blubbery. "It's okay, I'll take care of him," I said. "I'll call you Sammy."

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ Did I mention that I love reviews?

My last one mentioned that they were thankful that I put warnings (called trigger warnings, or tw) before my chapters. The reason I do that is because there are a lot of young viewers on this site, and some content can be startling without mental preparation. (I'm an old grandma, so I've been desensitized to everything.) The second reason is that some people are sensitive to certain content no matter what age they are and this gives them a chance to prepare themselves for the content.

If anyone has a request to tag a specific trigger, please leave a review. I'm not the person to make fun of sensitivities to certain content.


End file.
